Read The Way Of Shadows for Free Online

so close a grown man could touch both walls at the same time. Azoth had chosen it for that reason. He wouldn’t let his quarry slip past him. But now the walls seemed malevolent, stretching hungry fingers toward each other, closing out the stars, grabbing for him. Wind muttered over the roofs, telling tales of murder.
    Azoth heard the shuffle again and relaxed. A scarred old rat emerged from under a pile of moldering boards and sniffed. Azoth held still as the rat waddled forward. It sniffed at Azoth’s bare feet, nudged them with a wet nose, and sensing no danger, moved forward to feed.
    Just as the rat moved to bite, Azoth buried the shiv behind its ear and into the ground beneath. It jerked but didn’t squeak. He withdrew the thin iron, satisfied with his stealth. He checked the alley again. Still nothing.
    So where am I weak? What would I do to destroy me if I were Rat?
    Something tickled his neck and he brushed it away. Curse the bugs.
    Bugs? It’s freezing out here. His hand came down from his neck warm and sticky.
    Azoth turned and lashed out, but the shiv went spinning from his hand as something struck his wrist.
    Durzo Blint squatted on his heels not a foot away. He didn’t speak. He just stared, his eyes colder than the night.
    There was a long pause as they stared at each other, neither saying a word. “You saw the rat,” Azoth said.
    An eyebrow lifted.
    “You cut me where I cut it. You were showing me that you’re as much better than me as I am better than the rat.”
    A hint of a smile. “A strange little guild rat you are. So smart, so stupid.”
    Azoth looked at the shiv—now magically in Durzo’s hand—and felt ashamed. He was stupid. What had he been thinking? He was going to threaten a wetboy? But he said, “I’m going to apprentice with you.”
    Blint’s open hand cracked across his face and sent him sprawling into the wall. His face scraped against rock and he landed heavily.
    When he rolled over, Blint was standing over him. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you,” Blint said.
    Doll Girl. She wasn’t only the answer to Blint’s question, she was Azoth’s weakness. She was where Rat would strike. A wave of nausea swept over Azoth. First Jarl and now Doll Girl.
    “You should,” Azoth said.
    Blint raised an eyebrow again.
    “You’re the best wetboy in the city, but you’re not the only one. And if you won’t apprentice me and you don’t kill me, I’ll train under Hu Gibbet or Scarred Wrable. I’ll spend my life training just for the moment I have my chance at you. I’ll wait until you think I’ve forgotten today. I’ll wait until you think it was just a dumb guild rat’s threat. After I’m a master, you’ll jump at shadows for a while. But after you jump a dozen times and I’m not there, you won’t jump just once, and that’s when I’ll be there. I don’t care if you kill me at the same time. I’ll trade my life for yours.”
    Durzo’s eyes barely had to shift to go from dangerously amused to simply dangerous. But Azoth didn’t even see them through the tears brimming in his own eyes. He only saw the vacant look that had come into Jarl’s eyes and imagined seeing it in Doll Girl’s. He imagined her screams if Rat came and took her every night. She’d scream wordlessly for the first few weeks, maybe fight—bite and scratch for a while—and then she wouldn’t scream anymore, wouldn’t fight at all. There would just be grunting and the sounds of flesh and Rat’s pleasure. Just like Jarl.
    “Is your life so empty, boy?”
    It will be if you say no. “I want to be like you.”
    “No one wants to be like me.” Blint drew a huge black sword and touched the edge to Azoth’s throat. In that moment, Azoth didn’t care if the blade drank his life’s blood. Death would be kinder than watching Doll Girl disappear before his eyes.
    “You like hurting people?” Blint asked.
    “No, sir.”
    “Ever killed anyone?”
    “No.”
    “Then why are you